The Animal Fair is planning on having a Black Cod sale towards the end of June or early July. We are currently fishing for hagfish and black cod, but are unable to have a sale until Rich's hand has recovered from his fishing related injury. (see the full story below)

Rich was busy this last winter modifying the Animal Fair to accommodate a new fishery. Although we have experience fishing for Hagfish on other boats, we have always thought our boat was too small. Rich's creativity prevailed and I like to think of our boat as a "Transformer" now, or as our fisherman friend likes to say the "Winchester Mystery boat".

As with all fisheries, figuring out your deck plan and systems takes time and practice. Unfortunately this learning curve has included the first serious injury on the Animal Fair since we bought the boat in 2002. After moving the position of our Hydraulic line puller closer to the operator, Rich placed his gloved hand in a spot that was no longer safe due to muscle memory, and before he knew it his middle finger was sucked into the puller and spit back out again. His glove was intact, but the pad of his finger was pinched almost all of the way off.

After bandaging his finger and tieing our gear off to a floating buoy, we headed toward Fort Bragg and the emergency room with an ETA of almost three hours. They stitched up his finger and so far it seems to be recovering well.

We were able to go out and retrieve our gear a couple of days later but otherwise have been encouraging a very antsy Rich to rest and heal. We have also hired a deckhand to help out during this period so that we can keep fishing while Rich is restricted to driving and pointing.

We are really looking forward to seeing you, and are excited to have a Black Cod sale as soon as we possibly can!